Sony's "Exmor R" - I smell CMOS dRF

[axiom]

If there is to be a new Japanese dRF, I would imagine that it'll be a full frame CMOS.
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0908/09080601sonycmos.asp

 

[ItsReallyDarren]

Neat. Just when I thought the game would slow down after full frame sensors became more readily available.

 

[Spleenrippa]

Go Sony!
Then they can sell it to Nikon, who will charge 3x as much for it ;-)

 

[peterm1]

I had a feeling "in my water" as my mother would have said that new sensors might be the next big area of digital camera innovation. For too long the focus has been squeezing more and more megapixels into essentially the same sensor architecture - a strategy that has to be self limiting. But NEW sensor technology - now thats interesting! Anything that improves dynamic range or signal to noise ratios has to be something that is welcomed by all who are interested in good imaging.

 

[historicist]

Going forward, Sony will continue its development of image sensors that combine ease-of-use, advanced image quality and cutting-edge pixel miniaturization.

Reading between the lines, this sounds more like something intended to allow very small high pixel count sensors with reasonable quality rather than full frame sensors.

A quick google turned up this article:

http://www.photonics.com/Content/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=34685

which seems to indicate that the advantage to the manufacturer is primarily that they can offer a sensor with acceptable performance on a smaller die which is cheaper to make. I guess there's nothing to stop them applying the same techniques to a larger sensor, but at the moment it seems like the technology is a intended for precisely the opposite kind of thing - small, high pixel count sensors.

 

[axiom]

Regardless of how Sony originally wanted to market this new "Exmor R" sensor; this new technology allows significantly higher incident angle of incoming light to be captured, effectively solving the problem of why CMOS cannot be used on dRF, pushing CMOS technology closer to CCD.
I am going even as far as guessing this technology can be improved so much that it performs better than CCD on the full frame vignetting problem, so a full frame CMOS seems somewhat natural to me.

 

[Tuolumne]

The first cameras released do indeed seem to be P&S. Also, some rather amazing real-time stitched panorama claims.
/T

 

[Bnack]

Zeiss has been on record saying they would consider getting into the DRF game if/when FF technologies became possible. Rumors of Leica being able to make a FF... and given this new sensor, and the bit of collaboration between Sony and Zeiss... maybe I'm just dreaming here...

 

[axiom]

... maybe I'm just dreaming here...

at least you are not the only one

 

[Paddy C]

Zeiss has been on record saying they would consider getting into the DRF game if/when FF technologies became possible. Rumors of Leica being able to make a FF... and given this new sensor, and the bit of collaboration between Sony and Zeiss... maybe I'm just dreaming here...

Maybe. But it's such a lovely dream.